地方机构改革的困境:人口小县大部制改革思考

The Dilemma of Local Institutional Reform:Reflections on the Reform of Large Department System in Counties with Small Population

地方大部制改革的动因是减少行政开支、提高行政效率,将党政或政府的一些职能相同或相近的部门合并,从而精简机构精简人。陕西、湖北、广东等省一些县区开展了相似的大部制试点改革,未能取得预期效果,究其原因在于,改革后新的政府部门和机构与上级政府的部门和机构不对应,导致运作成本超过了原有结构产生的成本,以至于后来大多回归到原有体制。从制度变迁的角度分析,环境压力、路径依赖和利益补偿共同决定了地方大部制改革的行动逻辑;地方机构改革实质上是一种制度变迁,必须符合成本效益原则才能使改革生成的制度持续运转。这也就决定了机构改革只能采取边际递进而非另起炉灶的方法。

The motivation for the reform of local large department system is to reduce administrative expenses and improve administrative efficiency by merging some departments(both the Party and the government bodies)with the same or similar functions,thus streamlining institutions and personnel.Similar pilot reforms have been carried out in some counties and districts in Shanxi,Shaanxi,Hubei,Guangdong,and other provinces without achieving the expected results.Such a dilemma has arisen because there lacks the correspondence with the departments and institutions of the higher-level government after the reform,resulting in operating costs exceeding that generated by the original structure,an in-vain effort.The action logic of the reform,from the perspective of institutional change,is decided jointly by the environmental pressure,path dependence,and interest compensation;the reform is essentially an institutional change that must comply with the principle of cost-effectiveness for sustaining the operation of the system generated by the reform.This also determines that an approach of marginal progression rather than a totally new pattern should be adopted.